Malaika Orphanage - Arusha

Megan & Eddie Barkham Malaika Orphange August-November 2007

Today we leave Tanzania.And a part of me is left too.Yesterday we said goodbye to our homestay;that is the official terminology;in reality we left our new family;to say it was heartbreaking is an understatement.The love we feel for them and the love they gave to us will remain in our hearts forever.Mama,Baba,Gardy,Sarah,Godsave,Mum GoGo,Naomi and Imanhi we miss you already!!!! My thoughts on our three months with them are too precious to share;suffice to say we will return as soon as we can. Malaika:the hardest job I’ve ever had but hopefully one of the most worthwhile.There are certainly areas I found difficult to accept and areas I would like to see changed.My respect for the staff grew the longer I was there and likewise theirs for me. They have my sympathy;muzungus coming in for short periods of time telling them how to do the jobs they will still be doing long after we have left.Their was certainly some resentment when I first arrived but I chose to deal with it by getting my head down and working my butt off.Slowly,slowly the girls trusted in me and I enjoyed their respect and love.Teach by example would be my advice to any new volunteers.There were a number of practical difficulties and funding is always an issue. Thanks to Nicky and David in Exmouth Malaika will soon receive a supply of plastic pants and nappy pins.To say these are the type of things we were always short of gives you some idea of the way things are in Tanzania.The 6 babies I was mainly responsible for were of course beautiful but their starts in life pretty horrendous.For that reason I am sorry to have to question our worth as volunteers and would like to see a commitment of a minimum of 6 mths for people who work with vulnerable children.I was torn apart leaving them but am glad to say that I had three weeks with three lovely new volunteers from Israel and know that they will carry on where I left off.But part of me will always remain at Malaika.The older children I had less contact with but in my role of taking them to hospitals and clinics I became close to them also.Volunteering at an orphanage is a huge physical and emotional challenge;one I struggled with almost daily.Comfort,Sia,Samwel,Betty,Neema and Baraka not forgetting Lisa and Paulo and the school children I carry you all in my heart. And now to my thoughts on Africa.I hate the poverty, the lack of respect for women and children,indiscriminate use of corporal punishment and the Dust!!!!!!!!! But we have been privilaged to meet some of the kindest and most loving and generous people who have thankfully blown the previous generilisations apart except for the Dust!!!! Their enthusiasm for life belies the hardships they exist under and we as pampered westerners would do with following their example.Having no water, no electricity and very basic toilet facilities soon became the norm and brought us closer to our hosts in Tanzania.Kwa heri to Arusha and all our new friends;we will be back!!! And finally to Mondo-thankyou for supporting us in this experiance.We acknowledged some differances in opinion and came away with I hope mutual respect.Kate you are amazing and we would like to say a special thankyou to you.It has been a privilage to know you. Asante sana.

Timbolo Primary School - Ngaramtoni

Joel Elkins September - December 2007

If you have the pleasure of teaching at Timbolo, you will undoubtedly develop a love/hate relationship with this road, which, depending on where in Ngaramtoni you live, takes between 40 and 50 minutes each direction, more if you stop to take a few pictures or engage with the locals, which you are likely to do at least a few times each trip, considering the splendor (both animate and inanimate) you will encounter.

For those who don’t have the pleasure, or are new to the experience, below is a roadmap of what you can expect to see. (This is just one of many possible routes to the school, but we have found it to be the fastest and most colorful. Times given are approximate and will vary.)

In order to be in time for morning assembly, you will need to leave the blue sign at the top of the Elias/David road at about 7:00 a.m. Turn left, heading north. In a few minutes (7:03), you will pass Emaoi Primary School on the left, which also serves as the local courthouse, a church on Sundays and, in the afternoon, an army training facility.




Pass this gate (7:06):

Next you will come to a stream (7:07), where, in the afternoon, you might see women doing laundry or army recruits rolling around in the mud. Given the state of the water, it seems better suited for the latter:



If you come at the right time of day, you may also run into Michael and his friends on their way to school, and they will be simply overjoyed to have the pleasure of walking there holding hands with a mzungu.



After a small incline, you will be able to see a gorgeous panorama
(7:10), one which will continue to impress you every time you pass it:



Immediately thereafter there will be a road going off to the right in a steep ascent, which you should take:

On the right at the top of the ascent (7:11), you will see a house with the world’s laziest cow. More often than not, it is sitting in a pile of hay:



Follow this road as it curves and you will most certainly be warmly greeted by a number of children, probably led by this adorable one:




A little further down the curving path (7:15), you will see a number of bomas (Massai huts), accompanied by innumerable goats and children (the latter of which love to have their picture taken; the former are indifferent):








Immediately thereafter, you will come to the “Trevi Fountain,” one of the few public water sources in the area, so named because it is usually left running whether or not is being used, which it often is, either for bathing, laundry or filling up buckets.



At the fork in the road (7:16), turn right:

In about 20 meters, you will see a small store on the right and a V on the left:
At this time, you will also probably be greeted by the “Dust Devils,” who are usually so covered in the stuff that you almost can’t tell where the ground ends and they begin.



At the V (7:17), take the diagonal path through the cornfields, as it curves by (not through) the trees:

If the corn is short enough, here is where you will probably get your best views of Mt. Meru:

Also, if you are on time, about now you may run into Joycey, who will always greet you with a big smile, on her way in the opposite direction:






You will exit the cornfields (7:21) and hit a road, which to the right leads to Kimnyak Primary and Secondary Schools. However, take the road left and then immediately take the fork off the road which goes underneath the Crying Tree, so named because, if it has rained at all in the past week, will still be dripping:

You are now overlooking what is affectionately called “Goatherders’ Hill.” This will soon become the highlight of your twice-daily trip. Once you are spotted, you will be assaulted with Massai greetings by the young goatherders until you are well out of sight. (Make sure you learn the proper responses to each.):


You may also have to pass a similar gauntlet when confronted with the “Ta Kwenya” girls, who are substantially less cute and often more aggressive with their greetings and requests:

You will come to and cross a dry riverbed (7:23) and turn right onto the main path. Continue on this road for a few minutes. On the way, you may experience a talking bush (7:26), saying things such as “Good morning,” “Good afternoon” or “Welcome to home.” Don’t worry, you are not going crazy, that’s just the bush babies who live behind, practicing their English:


Immediately thereafter, you will come to an intersection with a blue store at one corner:

Make a left and continue up the long dusty road. You are now on the final (and most exhausting) leg of your journey. It is about a 14 minute walk up this last straightaway, where (if you’re lucky) you’ll meet some more of the regulars, including “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Shoulders” kid (who likes to show off his English, but needs a little help with the lyrics):


The “Good morning, sir, Good morning, madam” girl, who will greet you most politely with the best English pronunciation you will find in Tanzania, unless your camera is on video mode, then she’ll just stare at you:

The Boma kids, who are always more than happy to pose for the camera: About a quarter of the way up, you will see a fork in the road (7:29); stay on the main path (i.e. veer right)





From a distance, you may see a stone building (7:33) and think that you are almost there, but don’t get too excited – as you will see, it’s not the school, but what it is is anybody’s guess (a partially completed toilet?)



However, when you reach this gate (7:36), you are getting close:





You might even hear the drums from Sambasha in the distance. As you approach (7:40), if you are one time, the kids should be lining up for morning assembly.




The school is on your right. Good luck and have fun!

Book Donation - Usangi

Thanks to the fantastic fundraising efforts of an ex-Usangi volunteer and her daughter the MondoChallenge foundation have been able to donate over £200 of textbooks to Kighare Secondary School in Usangi. Mama Joyce, the headmistress, decided to focus on English books particularly for Form 1 and 2. As Kighare is a new school there were almost no books, making teaching and learning extremely difficult.

Kighare now have class sets of Form 1 and Form 2 English textbooks as well as a wide selection of novels written in English. Mama Joyce was delighted with the new books and the students couldn't wait to start using the books. Mr Temu, the school's only English teacher got them started straight away, as you can see in the pictures. We look forward to excellent English results from Kighare in the near future. Thanks again from the school for the donations to make this possible.

Help Needed - Orphans in Usangi

The unofficial HIV infection rate in Tanzania is now 20-25%. This means that there are an increasing number of orphans relying on the assistance of extended family for their day to day needs. In Usangi, MondoChallenge work with Malezi, a local community organisation, to provide grants to HIV affected adults so they can start small businesses and support their families. Along with Mama Halima, the Community Worker in Usangi, we would now like to find funds to sponsor orphans to attend secondary school. A year's fees cost as little as 45 pounds. If you are able to help, please contact the UK office (info@mondochallenge.org) or us here in Tanzania (mondotz@gmail.com).

Our volunteer Hannah gives us some background on the orphans and their family situation:

Winn Tomasi Amani

Winn is 14 years old and is currently in Form 1 at Ndorwe Secondary School in Makademi Village, Usangi. Next year she will be in Form 2 which is a very important year as they are preparing for national exams at the end of the year. Winn has lost both parents and is being looked after by her sister, Margaret Tomas on her farm. Due to insufficient land in the Pare Mountains, farmers in Usangi do not make much money, in fact they sometimes don’t produce enough crops to feed their families as such the family will not be able to pay next year’s school fees for Winn.

George Jerume

George is living with his uncle Joseph Mziray as he lost both parents about 5 years ago to HIV. At the time there were no HIV treatments in use in the region therefore sufferers who could have lived longer healthier lives died prematurely, George’s parents included. Joseph is a farmer who is only able to produce enough crops to feed the family and not enough to make money for school fees etc.

Mwanamisi Salim Hamisi

Mwanamisi is 14 years old and is studying at Ndorwe secondary school. She is currently living with her grandmother who has the same name as her. She lost both parents to HIV. Her grandmother is now 75 years old and unable to make a living to support the family through school.

Aina S Shabani

Aina is 14 years old and has lost both of her parents to HIV. She now lives with her sister Rehema who runs a small farm to feed the family. Aina hopes to move into Form 2 next year at Ndorwe Secondary school.

Zaina H Iddi

Zaina is 14 years old and is studying at Ndorwe Secondary School. She will be in Form 2 next year. Zaina has lost both parents and is living with her Grandfather.

Hamisi Tabran Hamisi

Hamisi is currently studying in Form 1 at Ndorwe Secondary School and hopes to study Form 2 there next year. He is 14 years old.

Abdala Mohamed

Abdala will be in Form 2 at Ndorwe Secondary School next year. He is 14 years old. He is living with his grandmother having lost both of his parents to HIV.

Chakicha Juma Sekhoro

Chakicha is 14 years old and is studying Form 1 at Ndorwe. Chakicha lost his mother to HIV. His father, who is also infected, is now too unwell to look after Chakicha and therefore he now lives with his grandfather who is in his seventies and unable to raise enough money to pay for school fees.

Zainabu J Salehe

Zainabu is 14 years old and studying her Form 1 at Ndorwe. She has lost both of her parents to HIV and now lives with her brother.

Saumu Rajabu

Saumu is 14 years old and is studying Form 1 at Kighare Secondary School. Her father died about 8 years ago from HIV, her mother has been struggling with HIV ever since but is taking medication. She has suffered from Tuberculosis but is currently fit enough to have a job in a bar selling soft drinks and beer.

Halima Chediel Mchome

Halima is 15 years old and is studying Form 2 at Usangi Day school. She is about to sit her national exams and is hoping to get a study place for next year in Form 3. She has been orphaned and lives with her grandmother.

Mwezine Hasani Mkazi

Mwezine is 14 years old and will be studying Form 2 next year at Usangi Day school. Having lost her father to HIV she now lives with her mother, who is also infected, and is now very sick

Fatina Daudi Badi

14 yrs F2 next year – Usangi. Her mother, Mwanamisi Badi, has received a grant for 95,000 Tsh to run a small business, however her mother has since left Usangi because she is worried that her family will remove the capital for the company meaning that her new business would have failed. She has left Fatina in the care of her grandparents. Mwanamisi’s business is now doing well in Arusha, the capital has been raised to 120,000 Tsh, she has given her sister some of the profit so that she can start her own small business here in Usangi. Mwanamisi has also sent some of the profit back to Usangi to buy food and clothes for Fatina.

Halima Rajabu Sekiete

Halima finished standard 7 this year, the last year in Primary school. She was a promising student in primary school and is now hoping to go to secondary school. She lives near to Kighare school with her mother, she will probably go to Kighare next year, if she gets the fees. Her father died from Tuberculosis when she was only 6 years old, she is now 13 years old.

Mohamed Ali

Mohamed is 14 years old he is currently in Kighare secondary school in Form 2, and about to take his exams. He hopes to progress to Form 3, depending on his exam results and securing the fees for the forthcoming year.

Asha Saidi Ali

Asha is 14 years old. She lost her father due to what was at the time an undiagnosed Illness. After the death of her father her mother moved the family to Usangi from Tanga, on the coast so that she could be closer to her wider family. Since the death of her father, her mother has been diagnosed with HIV, thus explaining the unknown illness that her father suffered from. Her mother applied for a grant to start a business but was not allocated the money because she is partially paralysed and was therefore considered unable to maintain a business and therefore make the most of the grant.

Mwanaidi Shabani Hasam

Mwanaidi is in Form 2 at Usangi Day school and is about to sit for her national exams. Should these go well she will be offered a place in Form 3. She lost her father to HIV about 10 years ago, since then her mother has raised the young family on her own. Her mother maintains the family by running a small farm which supports food for the family but cannot stretch to school fees. It is a small miracle that her mother escaped HIV infection!

Mwanaidi Iddy

Mwanaidi has recently moved to Kighare secondary school. She is currently in Form 1 and will pass into Form 2 next year. Her father died 2 years ago from HIV. Mwanaidi lives with her mother, who has been unwell recently but has not been tested for HIV.

Neema Benjamin

Neema is in Form 2 at Shigatini secondary school. She is currently studying for her Form 2 national exams. She has lost her father and has been supported at school by her mother and aunt. Now her cousins have passed their exams and are about to start University. University fees are more expensive than school fees and her aunt can therefore no longer support both her own children at University and her niece at secondary school so Neema’s mother is trying to come up with the school fees on her own. She works at the local pottery in Usangi for her money but is struggling to come up with the school fees. Since Neema is a bright girl they have been sending her to Shigatini, which is a private school, therefore the fees are more expensive. Where possible families chose to send children to private schools because Government Schools here often have a lack of teachers, due to the lower salaries they offer.

Mariamu Rhamadhani

Mariamu is 13 years old and has just completed Standard 7, at Kivundu Primary School. She is hoping to start Usangi Day Secondary School next year. Her father has died from HIV and her mother has not yet been tested. Her mother, Zahara, was awarded a grant by Malezi HIV grants programme who distributed their first round of grants to 10 recipients in May 2007. Zahara is supporting her 5 children through selling firewood. The eldest daughter now has a young baby who also lives with them. The three brothers are younger and are all still studying at primary school. The seven of them live together in a small house, with only one room. They have divided the room with some small fences so that the 2 beds have separate areas. Since there is a lack of land in the Pare Mountains cows are not allowed to graze. Instead they are kept inside and the owners collect grass for them everyday. Mariamu’s family share their house with 2 cows.

Asha Ali

Father passed away from HIV, the mother is now infected and suffering. Her mother Mwajabu was a grant recipient from the Malezi programmed but is now too sick to run the business so Mwajabu’s mother is running rh business selling onions. Asha is the eldest of three, the younger ones are in primary school, one in Standard 4 and the youngest who is 7 years old does not currently attend school as he is also HIV positive and currently too sick to attend.

Kimnyak Primary School - Ngaramtoni

Alex Nilsson September - December 2007

6th week of teaching

Monday, I started a new chapter with my kids, so I had them write down a dictionary of 36 words (as their books are totally in english, I have no clue how they are supposted to figure out what it all means - and remember without having it on paper) then I collected their exercise books and did corrections for the rest of the school day (approx from 11-2, when they look up the school...) By that time I had almost gone through 5a which was 56 books in total. (correcting dictionary and previous tasks) I also had to go back to the class and give back books where the students had not finished writing down the words, they just panic when you collect the books for office. So they did them later on and came with them to the office.Alex correcting system: first exercise/task on the chapter (usually a dictionary) gives a orange star with a highlighter pen. Next task, yellow, then blue and last one green, if you did a good job you get a small sticker, if you did very well it's a shiny star =)

In the afternoon Vicky, Joel, Lindsay and I went to the Orphanage to do some more painting, mainly details on the mural that Kim and Vicky lined out before she (Kim) left.Tuesday was the same story in school as yesterday.Last week I had the misbehaving kids in 5b to do "jumps" touch your toes and then jump - hands up in the air, which worked remarkably well, I was down from 7 to 1 jumping kid in 1 day =)Although on one of the days last week there was a boy hiting a girl quite hard and they could not explain to me in english what was going on so I had them sit in a corner of the classroom until end of period when I took them with me to the office (staff room). I asked on of the teachers to ask the students what had happend and then translate to me. They exchanged some words in Swahili then she said I want to punish them (and I started questioning why I even took them into the staff room), I stayed calm and asked again what happend. She had them sit on the floor with their hands in the air, so I had to ask another teacher to please ask them again and to translate for me. The girl was so near to tears: I assume because she got hit by the guy and then ended up in the teachers staff room and seemed to be punished for it. So finally we got the words out that he had hit her but without any reason so he had to appologize, touching her shoes and her cheek, much better then the physical punishment!In the afternoon Lindsay had went gone to Arusha, Joel was having a rest and I went jogging so we cancelled the tuesday beer.In the evening Nassir decided to add blue extensions to my hair and then we painted our nails =)